Justices take strong step for LGBT rights

The Supreme Court decision establishes that employers cannot fire workers because of sexual identity.

The quest for equality began with a clash with police, leading to protests, some violent and some peaceful.

The cause and its name spread through the country, raising awareness and changing public opinion. But discriminatory practices and injustice continued.

Like Black Lives Matter, the PRIDE movement to establish equal rights and treatment of the LGBTQ community of gays, lesbians and transgender people is a movement of protests, displays of unity, and legal battles to gain equality.

On Monday, that movement won one of those battles with a Supreme Court decision establishing that employers cannot fire workers because of sexual identity. Until Monday’s decision, it was legal in more than half of the states to fire workers for being gay, bisexual or transgender. The decision thus extended workplace protections to millions of people across the nation — a sweeping victory for fairness and equality.

The high court’s 6-3 ruling was lauded Monday not only as a landmark decision for gay rights but also because the majority opinion was written by Justice Neal Gorsuch, a conservative appointee named by President Trump to the Supreme Court .

Chief Justice John Roberts, an appointee of President George W. Bush, also joined the four Democratic appointees on the court in voting for the ruling. This proves that the legal acumen and broader experience of justices can be a deciding factor in their actions, not just the larger conservative or liberal ideology.

The question in the cases brought before the court was the reach intended in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin and sex. The court had to decide whether discrimination “because of sex” applies to gay, bisexual and transgender workers.

Gorsuch wrote in his opinion: “An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex.

“It is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.”

The court hinged its ruling on that phrase in the Civil Rights Act, “because of sex.” Ironically, the phrase is believed to have been added during the 1964 debate on the Civil Rights Act by a segregationist, Rep. Howard Smith of Virginia, who thought it would poison the passage of the bill. Equal rights for women at that time was even more of an unaccepted notion than equality for people of color.

Gorsuch wrote that the decision does not answer the continuing questions of bathrooms, dressing rooms and other issues involving fairness and access for lesbians, gays and transgender individuals. Those are for other cases and another day, he wrote.

The decision comes during PRIDE month, a time typically of marches and parades to demonstrate the pride of the LGBTQ community and the continuing fight for equality, Last year, more than 5 million people gathered at Stonewall, the bar in New York that was the site of the June 28, 1969 police clash, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of that protest.

Of course, the coronavirus disease COVID-19 has canceled or lessened the June PRIDE gatherings , but it has not diminished the pride of the movement. In ways very similar to Black Lives Matter, PRIDE is rooted in a groundswell of emotion built up from years of being denied equality. Both movements are built on conviction and strengthened by the hard work of demanding change.

Monday’s ruling brought a bit of solidity to these turbulent times. The battle for justice for people of all races and sexual identities continues. In the midst of protest , the court’s ruling was a victory that can be savored with pride.